Empowered Communications
Chillon Caraway
LSU Student, Alexis Smith
The Gifted Life Podcast is excited to share a story about a life saved.
Read a special guest blog from LSU Manship School of Communications student, Alexis Smith.
Register to be an organ, eye and tissue donor at registerme.org
Empowered Communications Group, a student public relations agency at Louisiana State University, has been working with Louisiana Organ Procurement Agency during the spring of 2020 in an effort to increase organ and tissue donation awareness and donor registry.
The public relations efforts are part of a service learning class at LSU taught by award-winning professor, Dr. Jinx Broussard. The extensive campaign plans usually include on and off campus events, fundraising efforts, table talks and giveback nights, but this semester looked different for the graduating seniors and organizations involved.
The class is usually divided into two stages: the research & planning stage and then implementation stage. After the students at LSU had researched and planned a campaign for LOPA and were ready to begin implementing, COVID-19 was announced as a world pandemic. Following the announcement, stay-at-home and social distancing orders were enforced across Louisiana. With the guidance of Dr. Broussard, Empowered Communications quickly began to explore creative ways to spread awareness and emphasize the need for donors in an online campaign.
In the midst of changing the way LOPA approaches families and prospective recipients due COVID-19, the organization’s employees worked diligently alongside the students to make sure that the online campaign came to fruition.
CEO, Kelly Ranum, met with Alexis Smith, Account Executive, via video-chat to express her gratitude and excitement about the online campaign. “The way LOPA operates looks a lot different during this time. We are used to being able to have conversations with families face-to-face and hold in-person events to honor those people. This is something we have not had to deal with yet, but we are dedicated to Making Life Happen and spreading hope. I am excited to see what you all come up with to help us in our mission,” says Ranum.
After quickly creating an online campaign, titled “Spreading Hope, Not Germs” the students began interviewing individuals affected by organ or tissue donation, writing feature stories, creating graphics and coming up with new ways to advocate for the organization’s cause. Both parties were still dedicated to saving lives and making an impact in the community.
“Empowered Communications, a student team in my class, did not skip a beat in implementing their PR campaign for LOPA. The students developed creative ways to engage LOPA’s various publics. They interviewed organ recipients, and wrote blogs, articles and social media posts. They successfully reached out to the media, coordinated a special event by engaging Manship School faculty, staff and students on Blue and Green Day and they continued to call attention in a myriad of ways to a pressing need during National Donate Life Month. I cannot stress how inspired I am by these tenacious students who despite having their lives upended, enthusiastically did their work,” expresses Broussard.
Working together, separated by thousands of miles and state lines, the members of Empowered found ways to spread hope by telling inspiring stories of organ donors and recipients that involved the organization’s key publics through a weekly blog titled #TrueStoryTuesday. The student team also helped LOPA honor and celebrate the lives saved on National Blue and Green Day by creating a graphic that was shared by a variety of LSU students and faculty on social media. With the help of Lori Steele, a Community Educator for LOPA, the students were able to achieve many of the original goals of the campaign.
“We are so grateful for partners like Empowered Communications. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, these students understood LOPA’s core purpose. By combining their talents and social media skills, together they worked to increase donation awareness and to increase Louisiana’s donor registry. They were successful in helping us Make Life Happen,” exclaims Steele.
The great thing about the class, much like public relations itself, is it is mutually beneficial to both parties. Students gain real-world experience to use in their job search and resume, and non-profit organization benefit from the exposure and efforts of the campaign.
Group photo with LOPA representatives and LOPA volunteer (pre Covid 19)
“Working in partnership with LOPA this semester has given me such valuable real-world experience. I am grateful to have not only been able to work for such an amazing organization, but also with such professional and hands-on leaders at LOPA. I can now confidently step into a full time position with real public relations experience,” says Marlee Bridges, Account Executive of Empowered Communications.
We are so grateful for all of the experiences and hurdles we faced during this campaign, it allowed us to face a crisis head-on and still accomplish our goals. We loved leaving our mark on the community. We send a special thanks to Lori Steele, and the amazing LOPA employees who guided us during the semester.
Love, Empowered Communications
Special thanks to: Rebecca (creative DIR), Marlee (acct exec), Remy (strategic/creative), Sarah (Social media/promotions), Madeline (writing), Mikha (research), Caroline (Strategic/Creative), Alexis (Acct Exec)
Written by Alexis Smith - LSU Student - Manship School of Mass Communications